


leia organa and her flaws

by orphan_account



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: Gen, another leia fic!, but i wanted to tag him because screw you, but she won’t, han is mentioned for literally one second, i love writing leias thoughts so this was fun, leia needs to go to bed, oh boy, yay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-18
Updated: 2020-07-18
Packaged: 2021-03-05 10:27:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 965
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25349191
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: “do you ever wonder if you made the wrong choice?”or: leia’s greatest strength is also one of her biggest downfalls.
Relationships: Leia Organa & Luke Skywalker
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	leia organa and her flaws

**Author's Note:**

> this is obviously not canon but i’d like to think it could be. i had a lot of fun writing leia in this one!  
> if anyone cares; the concept came up when i was thinking about padme’s flaws, and i realized one of them and how it shows up in leia, too. the morals of alderaan are a bit tricky when you come to think about it-at least in my mind.  
> less hyphens then last time i swear. hope you enjoy!

“do you ever think-“ luke cut himself off, and leia turned and looked at him. her friend usually said whatever was on his mind, and if it hurt someone in the process he apologized profusely. he was a farm boy-no one could blame him for being ignorant.  
why, then, had he stopped?  
“you can continue,” leia said when luke made no move to continue the conversation.  
“you think about alderaan, right?”  
oh. that was it. after three years, the pain was muffled-certainly not eliminated, but she had started being able to think of the planet without a sharp pang in her chest.  
leia nodded. “i guess so,” she said. “what about it, though?”  
“do you ever wonder if...”  
“luke,” said leia, and she was feeling a smile start to form on her face. “you can spit it out. i won’t get mad.”  
“you might, though,” he said seriously, and she was surprised at how solemn he sounded.  
it wasn’t very good, whatever he was thinking.  
“well,” she said, and steeled herself for the unintended-and-yet-still-hurtful remark luke was going to spit out-“go ahead, anyways.”  
“do you ever wonder if you made the wrong choice?”  
what?  
leia stopped her movements. the wrong choice? what other choice was there? the rebellion would’ve been eliminated if she let tarkin blow up yavin IV. what could he be talking about?  
“i’m not sure what you mean”, said leia, and she was careful to keep her confusion out of her tone.  
luke hesitated again, but before she could tell him to just get on with it he opened his mouth and continued. “i mean-do you ever wonder if you should have told tarkin where the rebel base actually was?”  
so he did mean that. leia was still confused, despite that. that wasn’t a viable option-surely he knew that? “what, and just let the rebellion get blown to dust?”  
luke shifted, and her tone was probably too harsh, leia realized-but she didn’t have time to apologize before he started talking again. “i mean, yeah.”  
leia looked at him, really looked at him. he was the furthest thing from pro-empire, she knew that-so what was he talking about? “why?” she said, after a moment.  
“well,” said luke, looking like he very much regretted his existence, “think about it. everyone here signed up for the rebellion, right? everyone here agreed they were okay getting killed by the empire. everyone here knows exactly what they’re doing by even being on this planet.”  
“right,” said leia, and there was a pit forming in her stomach, and she knew whatever he was going to say was going to hurt-but she had to hear it.  
“the people on alderaan didn’t do that, did they?”  
oh.  
luke looked at her expression. “i’m not saying you made the wrong choice or anything,” and he was talking very fast now, “but i mean-the morals are a bit complex, aren’t they? those people on alderaan hadn’t really agreed to be killed. they weren’t the same as the members of the rebellion. we all are fine dying for the cause-but not everyone on alderaan was.”  
leia couldn’t find her voice for a long moment, and even though she wasn’t looking at luke, she could feel his guilt. “it was what was right,” she managed.  
luke’s guilty expression left his face, and he stared at her for a beat, something unreadable in his face. “was it?”  
leia needed to gather up her composure and fast. “luke-“ she said, and something inside of her was telling her to be mad, mad at him, mad at him for even suggesting she made the wrong decision by killing everyone on alderaan-didn’t he even know how much that hurt, letting tarkin do that? “luke,” she said again, and her voice was much clearer. “i didn’t let them blow up alderaan because i wanted to.”  
“of course not,” he responded, “and that’s not what i’m saying either. but-you gave up an entire planet for the cause, leia. when does it become too much?”  
and again he had left her without words. she looked at him-he was not trying to hurt her, she knew-she could read his expression clearly. “too much?”  
“yeah,” said luke. “when does the giving become too much?”  
and leia never replied. 

•••

her room was cold, but leia didn’t really care.  
last night... it had shaken her. after leia stayed silent, luke quietly left the room. she hadn’t seen him since.  
was she upset because she knew he was right?  
the thought had crossed her mind so many times, and she’d shot it down instantly every other time. but she let it sit for a minute.  
luke had a point. she, leia organa, had decided her planet was less important then the rebellion. and even knowing that this would prevent other planets from suffering the same fate as alderaan. she knew that.  
but luke was also kind of right, wasn’t he? the cause. did she give too much up to it? was giving up a planet too much? she had signed the execution papers for billions of people, even if she didn’t actually press a button.  
where, then, was the line?  
nobody blamed her. even those surviving alderaanian families didn’t blame her-even those who’d lost everything. they knew she was suffering as much as they were.  
but there was a line.  
there was a line. it was a thought she’d never had before; giving too much up? throwing away too much? there’d always been a burning selflessness in her. her father had pointed it out, her mother had mentioned it, luke had, even han had brought it up.  
but there was being too selfless. there was giving too much.  
was it just as big a flaw as not giving anything at all?  
leia couldn’t answer that.

**Author's Note:**

> ahahahahhaha this was so much fun to write, honestly. the moral implications of alderaan are.. strange, and i wanted to write luke so i brought him into it too. anyways hope you liked it!


End file.
